9. The Cove: Psihoyos and Barry assemble a crack team like some sort of Clooney to infiltrate and record the goings-on. They gather world champion free divers to plant underwater cameras and microphones. They get Industrial Light and Magic to craft hidden HD cameras in realistic boulders and shrubbery. They get high-tech night vision and heat-sensitive cameras to scope out for guards and danger as they go all Spy Tech on the fishermen. It's a tense and dangerous operation because they're going espionage on a multi-million dollar industry. Water park dolphins sell for a minimum $150,000. But their efforts work. We see the butchery first-hand, and it's unnerving. Essentially, the dolphins are harpooned to death, as the cove fills with blood. By the finish, they're hooking carcasses out of the water, and the cove itself is drenched with sanguine waters.
8. Grizzly Man: Your view on whether Werner Herzog's Grizzly Man...
8. Grizzly Man: Your view on whether Werner Herzog's Grizzly Man...
- 8/15/2011
- by Dustin Rowles
Opened Friday, Nov. 28
The Audience Award winner at this year's Sundance Film Festival, "My Flesh and Blood" isn't exactly your standard crowd-pleaser.
Spending four seasons in the lives of Fairfield, Calif., mother Susan Tom and her sprawling family of adopted kids with special needs, the documentary can at times be downright devastating to watch (particularly the first half-hour), but, gradually, that initial shock value turns into something remarkably life-affirming.
Set to air in the spring on HBO in time for Mother's Day, the film began its Academy Award-qualifying theatrical run Friday and would seem assured of emerging as one of the final five nominees for best documentary.
First-time feature documentary director Jonathan Karsh, who took the director prize at Sundance, had originally met single mom Tom and her unique household when he was a producer for the San Francisco news program "Evening Magazine", but it quickly became apparent that her story warranted much more than the usual seven-minute treatment.
Among the 11 adopted children who make up the Tom clan of tweens and teens are troubled Joe, who, in addition to being stricken with cystic fibrosis, also has ADD, hyperactivity and a methamphetamine-addicted birth mother to contend with; Hannah and Xenia, who were born in Russia without any legs; the sweet Anthony, who has a fatal skin disease that makes bathing a traumatic ordeal; the developmentally challenged Katie; and sensitive Faith, whose piercing blue eyes gaze past a face that was severely disfigured as the result of a fire.
Despite all those special needs, the most intriguing thing about Tom's kids is how they function as your average American family with the obligatory teasing, meltdowns, schoolgirl crushes and joyful celebrations of birthdays and holidays. Their rather macabre take on Halloween is especially inspired.
Like the compassionate but no-nonsense Susan Tom herself, director Karsh's unblinking approach has little patience for strained sentimentality. Fortunately, room has been allowed for cinematographer Amanda Micheli's lovely transitional footage.
Demanding but deeply affecting, "My Flesh and Blood" ultimately takes on a literal, highly visceral meaning that transcends notions of conventional family dynamics.
MY FLESH AND BLOOD
Strand Releasing
Chaiken Films
Credits:
Director: Jonathan Karsh
Producer: Jennifer Chaiken
Director of photography: Amanda Micheli
Editor: Eli Olson
Music: Hector H. Perez and B. Quincy Griffin
Running time -- 83 minutes
No MPAA rating...
The Audience Award winner at this year's Sundance Film Festival, "My Flesh and Blood" isn't exactly your standard crowd-pleaser.
Spending four seasons in the lives of Fairfield, Calif., mother Susan Tom and her sprawling family of adopted kids with special needs, the documentary can at times be downright devastating to watch (particularly the first half-hour), but, gradually, that initial shock value turns into something remarkably life-affirming.
Set to air in the spring on HBO in time for Mother's Day, the film began its Academy Award-qualifying theatrical run Friday and would seem assured of emerging as one of the final five nominees for best documentary.
First-time feature documentary director Jonathan Karsh, who took the director prize at Sundance, had originally met single mom Tom and her unique household when he was a producer for the San Francisco news program "Evening Magazine", but it quickly became apparent that her story warranted much more than the usual seven-minute treatment.
Among the 11 adopted children who make up the Tom clan of tweens and teens are troubled Joe, who, in addition to being stricken with cystic fibrosis, also has ADD, hyperactivity and a methamphetamine-addicted birth mother to contend with; Hannah and Xenia, who were born in Russia without any legs; the sweet Anthony, who has a fatal skin disease that makes bathing a traumatic ordeal; the developmentally challenged Katie; and sensitive Faith, whose piercing blue eyes gaze past a face that was severely disfigured as the result of a fire.
Despite all those special needs, the most intriguing thing about Tom's kids is how they function as your average American family with the obligatory teasing, meltdowns, schoolgirl crushes and joyful celebrations of birthdays and holidays. Their rather macabre take on Halloween is especially inspired.
Like the compassionate but no-nonsense Susan Tom herself, director Karsh's unblinking approach has little patience for strained sentimentality. Fortunately, room has been allowed for cinematographer Amanda Micheli's lovely transitional footage.
Demanding but deeply affecting, "My Flesh and Blood" ultimately takes on a literal, highly visceral meaning that transcends notions of conventional family dynamics.
MY FLESH AND BLOOD
Strand Releasing
Chaiken Films
Credits:
Director: Jonathan Karsh
Producer: Jennifer Chaiken
Director of photography: Amanda Micheli
Editor: Eli Olson
Music: Hector H. Perez and B. Quincy Griffin
Running time -- 83 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Opened Friday, Nov. 28
The Audience Award winner at this year's Sundance Film Festival, "My Flesh and Blood" isn't exactly your standard crowd-pleaser.
Spending four seasons in the lives of Fairfield, Calif., mother Susan Tom and her sprawling family of adopted kids with special needs, the documentary can at times be downright devastating to watch (particularly the first half-hour), but, gradually, that initial shock value turns into something remarkably life-affirming.
Set to air in the spring on HBO in time for Mother's Day, the film began its Academy Award-qualifying theatrical run Friday and would seem assured of emerging as one of the final five nominees for best documentary.
First-time feature documentary director Jonathan Karsh, who took the director prize at Sundance, had originally met single mom Tom and her unique household when he was a producer for the San Francisco news program "Evening Magazine", but it quickly became apparent that her story warranted much more than the usual seven-minute treatment.
Among the 11 adopted children who make up the Tom clan of tweens and teens are troubled Joe, who, in addition to being stricken with cystic fibrosis, also has ADD, hyperactivity and a methamphetamine-addicted birth mother to contend with; Hannah and Xenia, who were born in Russia without any legs; the sweet Anthony, who has a fatal skin disease that makes bathing a traumatic ordeal; the developmentally challenged Katie; and sensitive Faith, whose piercing blue eyes gaze past a face that was severely disfigured as the result of a fire.
Despite all those special needs, the most intriguing thing about Tom's kids is how they function as your average American family with the obligatory teasing, meltdowns, schoolgirl crushes and joyful celebrations of birthdays and holidays. Their rather macabre take on Halloween is especially inspired.
Like the compassionate but no-nonsense Susan Tom herself, director Karsh's unblinking approach has little patience for strained sentimentality. Fortunately, room has been allowed for cinematographer Amanda Micheli's lovely transitional footage.
Demanding but deeply affecting, "My Flesh and Blood" ultimately takes on a literal, highly visceral meaning that transcends notions of conventional family dynamics.
MY FLESH AND BLOOD
Strand Releasing
Chaiken Films
Credits:
Director: Jonathan Karsh
Producer: Jennifer Chaiken
Director of photography: Amanda Micheli
Editor: Eli Olson
Music: Hector H. Perez and B. Quincy Griffin
Running time -- 83 minutes
No MPAA rating...
The Audience Award winner at this year's Sundance Film Festival, "My Flesh and Blood" isn't exactly your standard crowd-pleaser.
Spending four seasons in the lives of Fairfield, Calif., mother Susan Tom and her sprawling family of adopted kids with special needs, the documentary can at times be downright devastating to watch (particularly the first half-hour), but, gradually, that initial shock value turns into something remarkably life-affirming.
Set to air in the spring on HBO in time for Mother's Day, the film began its Academy Award-qualifying theatrical run Friday and would seem assured of emerging as one of the final five nominees for best documentary.
First-time feature documentary director Jonathan Karsh, who took the director prize at Sundance, had originally met single mom Tom and her unique household when he was a producer for the San Francisco news program "Evening Magazine", but it quickly became apparent that her story warranted much more than the usual seven-minute treatment.
Among the 11 adopted children who make up the Tom clan of tweens and teens are troubled Joe, who, in addition to being stricken with cystic fibrosis, also has ADD, hyperactivity and a methamphetamine-addicted birth mother to contend with; Hannah and Xenia, who were born in Russia without any legs; the sweet Anthony, who has a fatal skin disease that makes bathing a traumatic ordeal; the developmentally challenged Katie; and sensitive Faith, whose piercing blue eyes gaze past a face that was severely disfigured as the result of a fire.
Despite all those special needs, the most intriguing thing about Tom's kids is how they function as your average American family with the obligatory teasing, meltdowns, schoolgirl crushes and joyful celebrations of birthdays and holidays. Their rather macabre take on Halloween is especially inspired.
Like the compassionate but no-nonsense Susan Tom herself, director Karsh's unblinking approach has little patience for strained sentimentality. Fortunately, room has been allowed for cinematographer Amanda Micheli's lovely transitional footage.
Demanding but deeply affecting, "My Flesh and Blood" ultimately takes on a literal, highly visceral meaning that transcends notions of conventional family dynamics.
MY FLESH AND BLOOD
Strand Releasing
Chaiken Films
Credits:
Director: Jonathan Karsh
Producer: Jennifer Chaiken
Director of photography: Amanda Micheli
Editor: Eli Olson
Music: Hector H. Perez and B. Quincy Griffin
Running time -- 83 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 12/1/2003
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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